With The Warriors Gate, Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen have done nothing more than rehash The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), the disastrously tone-deaf attempt to appropriate/homage the Shaw Brothers martial arts film and Hong Kong Wu Xia cinema of the 1980s. It is also quite possibly the worst example of any of these attempts to pander to the Chinese box-office. The Warriors Gate is clearly another attempt to appeal to the Chinese market, being made as a Chinese co-production, being partially shot in China and featuring a number of Chinese actors in key roles. The last few years have seen Hollywood and other filmmakers eager to court the increasingly lucrative Chinese box-office to the extent of shooting on location in China and casting names that have collateral at the Chinese box-office. Besson has handed the director’s chair to German director Matthias Hoene who previously made the zombie comedy Cockneys vs Zombies (2012). Besson co-produces and co-writes the film with Robert Mark Kamen, the writer of the original The Karate Kid (1984) and Gladiator (2000), as well as number of Besson directed and produced scripts including The Fifth Element, The Transporter (2002), Taken (2008) and sequels, and Colombiana (2011).
Technically, The Warrior’s Gate is up to snuff as a mid-budget action-fantasy, but director Hoene keeps things competent rather than creative, and shows little of the flair he did in Cockneys vs Zombies, hobbled perhaps by the dearth of truly florid English to play with.The Warriors Gate was a film from Luc Besson, the French director of films like Nikita (1990), The Professional/Leon (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) and producer of dozens of others in the last decade including the Taken and The Transporter franchises.
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He’s clearly co-starring in another, better movie in his head. Fortunately, Bautista is on hand to deliver a spot-on, deadpan performance as the warlord surrounded by ineptitude who just wants to marry the heiress, kill her for the throne and conquer the world. Anachronistic English isn’t a new idea, nor is the blustery best buddy whose dialogue mostly comprises, “ Duuuude, she’s haaaawt,” or the initial misunderstanding of martial arts philosophy. Like EuropaCorp’s last substantial hit, Lucy, Warrior’s Gate has its own ridiculous internal logic, but lacks the goofy glee that accommodates suspension of disbelief to go with it.
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Besson and co-writer Robert Mark Kamen’s (the Transporter and Taken series) script is peppered with moderately amusing comic bits - Hong Kong veteran Francis Ng as Wizard Wu channeling Charles Nelson Reilly and Arun’s full title are high points - but the fish-out-of-water antics with Sulin at the mall and life lessons about avoiding personal challenges are purely cookie-cutter filmmaking. We know the second we meet him that Jack will exact some kind of revenge on his bully in the end we know he’ll somehow save his home from foreclosure with his mad gaming skillz and we know he’ll teach the upright Sulin and the uptight Zhao to bend the rules from time to time. There are few moments in Warrior’s Gate that seasoned viewers will not recognize for what they are the minute they happen. After somehow channeling his Black Knight alter ego and saving Sulin from a doomed marriage to the villainous Arun (Bautista) - despite the trained-since-birth-to-protect-the-emperor-Zhao’s presence - Jack goes home and saves his mom, too. Before you can say “culture-clash romance,” Jack jumps into the portal and is transported to an equally anonymous place and time in ancient China.įrom there the story wades into familiar territory, wherein the cowardly Jack, with his low self-esteem, is made brave and confident with martial help and wise words from Zhao and a chaste romance with Sulin.
Believing Jack to be the Black Knight - his online gaming avatar (don’t ask, the movie doesn’t really explain how this happens) - imperial warrior Zhao ( So Young‘s Mark Chao) comes through with Princess Sulin (Ni Ni of Bride Wars) in tow. Chang has given him a part-time job, which, lo and behold, is a portal to a mysterious land.
On the verge of losing their house, Jack takes home an antique box from the shop where the kindly Mr. In a contemporary, anonymous, vaguely California-ish town, Jack Bronson ( Uriah Shelton of The Glades) is juggling his online gaming obsession, school bullies (naturally) and his mother Annie’s ( Luther‘s Sienna Guillory) money anxiety.
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